Dover U17's (22) v (0) Westcobe Park
Played 3rd February 2008
Dover U17's took on Westcombe Park at Aylesford on Sunday in the Kent
Bowl Final.
These teams met recently in the league campaign in January and Westcombe
Park narrowly beat Dover in a thrilling match. This game showed all
the hallmarks of a similar encounter, Park received the kick off with
the slope advantage, they took the game to Dover and made good use
of their heavier forwards but as the game settled Dover started to
show the composure needed to win a game of this importance.
Sterling try line defence kept Park at bay until a penalty in Dover's
favour allowed fly half Keiron Premnath to clear the lines and from
the resulting lineout Dover gained clean possession and made ground
up field. This attack led to the first score from a penalty kick by
Premnath. As the first half progressed it became clear that Dover were
gaining the upper hand, any Park attack was quickly snuffed out. The
pack were strong at scrummage with hooker John Oliver stealing many
of Park's put in. Prop Theo McMenamin was also playing havoc with his
opposite number much to the annoyance of the referee, however it all
resulted in good possesion. Half Back Blake fed good ball to the backs
and released Dale Mercer to score a try with Premnath converting, this
took the score to 10 - 0 at half time.
Second half afforded Dover the slope advantage and while Park continued
with their forwards dominated game. Dover's backs put in a very credible
performance and at every opportunity showed how much they have improved
giving by far the best performance to date. Scrum Half Tarren Blake
played an impressive game standing in for injured Richard Walker and
through his efforts Mercer was again released to score in the corner
with an unconverted try.
To their credit Westcombe Park continued to pressure Dover and crept
up field to the 5m line when eventually a maul was set and they crossed
the Dover line and a nervous few seconds past as the referee deemed
the ball was held up.
No 8 Ben Atkin intercepted a lose pass from Park's back line and after
breaking the initial tackle ran from his own 10m line to score under
the posts, a just reward for his outstanding effort during this game,
the conversion ended the game 22 - 0 and marked a major step forward
for Dover U17's.
Reported by Paddy McAdam
